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Friday, August 10, 2012

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (7)

Woman
Reading - anythinggauche.com

After two
months of Victorian reading (June & July) I felt quite exhausted; so for
August I have picked books that I really want to read, and most of them are not
classics. However I still put two classics in my schedule. One of them is from
Albanian’s author: Ismail Kadare. I haven’t read his works before, and this time
I read the translated version (Bahasa Indonesia) of The Palace of Dreams. It’s
a bit magical realism, and the main theme is the dictatorship of Ottoman Empire
in 19th century who controlled the dreams of its people. Although
the theme is quite interesting, I did not find it very entertaining. Here’s my review.

Yesterday I
started Germinal by Emile Zola. Zola is one of my favorite authors, and I found
the first few pages were beautifully written, that I have a feeling I’ll enjoy
this book. Next week will be a long holiday here in Indonesia (the moslem will celebrate
Idul Fitri), so from 17th to 22nd I will stay at home,
and hopefully I can read as much as I want to. Along with Germinal, I have
planned to re-read ancient Indian epic: Mahabharata. I have the re-told version
in graphic novels in my collection (two hardcover books), it’s in Bahasa
Indonesia and illustrated in Indonesian folklore by a famous Indonesian comics
illustrator. I have read this several times when I was a kid, and it will be
nice to re-read it as an adult reader. I still remember that there are many
good moral value in it, which I think worth to read for many times.

So…how about
you? How is your classics reading for this week? And what is your plan for next
week?